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If Lara Croft had the average woman’s proportions (Picture: Bulimia.com)

An eating disorder charity is asking the gaming industry to get real with its depiction of female bodies.

‘With such high attention to detail in gaming, why can’t they accurately portray the female body?,’ Bulimia.com asks.

To shine a light on the unrepresentative, and potentially harmful, portrayal of women’s bodies in the industry, they have given some of the most famous female characters realistic makeovers, using the average American woman’s measurements.’

‘These days, there’s rarely a media type that isn’t criticized for its body image depictions, and video games are no exception,’ they write on their blog.

(Picture: Bulimia.com)

But, with all the focus on hyper-realistic techniques and immersive gaming, why doesn’t this stretch to the female characters?

The charity argues: ‘If video game creators are going to pride themselves on accurate digital representations, then it’s time for them to get real about women’.

(Picture: Bulimia.com)

The consequences of not doing this, they say, are to give the young male and female audiences these video games are largely targeted at ‘a skewed image of how the female body should look.’

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Also part of the problem is the fact that gaming heroines are usually half-naked and are given names like ‘Bikini Girl’.

(Picture: Bulimia.com)

For young women ‘this might mark the beginning of obsessive thoughts about their own bodies, and self-questioning as to why they don’t align with their perceived ideal.’

In fact, a spokesperson for the charity told Motherboard: ‘The scope of impact goes way beyond the people playing the games.’

(Picture: Bulimia.com)

They added: ‘Every doll-like character they design is harming cultural perception of the female body, and in turn the women they care about. In fact, a recent study by Rosalind Warren explains it’s not even something male players want to see. There’s no reason this can’t change.’